The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 60: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— ee — _— a 52 be welcomed and encouraged. Some said Jacob had had a legacy left him; others that he had been well paid for some work that he had undertaken; but all _ agreed that he was employing his cash wisely when _ he was spending it among themselves. And so the glass went merrily round, and Randall was sent stag- gering home night after night, lauded as a jovial fel- low by his boon associates, and finding his purse each day becoming more impoverished by the expenses in which he indulged. Satisfied that her father had been prevented from carrying into execution the design she had overheard, and knowing that, although his business was preca- rious, he had frequently brought home before, from his contraband transactions, a considerable sum, Mary thought less of the amount that he was spending than the manser in which it was expended. In vain she sought to wean him from his prevailing vice. Harsh words and violent blows were her recompense for the tender care with which she strove to make him happy in his home; and in the heat of his intemperance he once struck her to the ground. From that hour she felt herself absolved from filial duty; and feeling that the place had ceased to be a home for her, she silently resolved to act upon an intention that had been gra- dually forming in her mind. The prospect of happiness in the dwelling that she occupied Mary saw was daily becoming more remote. The increasing brutality of her father, and the vicious influences that surrounded her, excited an earnest wish to escape from their contamination; and the oppor- tunity for acting upon this desire soon occurred. One evening, when the ill-usage she had received from her father had been more than usually severe, the bird-fancier, who had been sleeping off his drunken- ness throughout the day, rose to rejoin his tayern companions; and in answer to her applications for money, threw down a sovereign, with an intimation. that he should not return till midnight. Mary watched him leave with tearful eyes, as she rose from the table where she had been. seated, weeping bitterly; and then feeling that the time had arrived for action, she prepared for her own departure. Her arrange- ments, that had been commenced in anticipation the day beforehand, were soon completed. She had taken a lodging in the Borough at the house of a person whom she knew as a respectable tradeswoman; and with the hope of soon finding some employment by which she could support herself, she resolved to there fix her temporary abode, until such an opportunity occurred, A small box, containing a few requi- sites of wearing apparel, was all that she took with her, and this was conveyed to the nearest cab-stand by the son of the shoemaker, whe had often rendered her such trifling services before. In return for his aid Mary presented him with her own favourite canary, the last of the stock that remained; for the rest of the birds had all been sold, and, in consequence of Ran- dall’s indifference to his business, their places had not been re-filled by others. Conscious of the bold nature of the step she had determined on, and terrified by every footstep lest it should be that of her father, Mary crossed the threshold of the old dwelling with a heavy heart; and the vehicle had no sooner con- veyed her to her new home, where all was strango and unfamiliar, than the contrast was brought vividly before her, and the perils of the great world into which she had thrown herself seemed to mass them- selves in one appalling aggregate before her. That night the pillow of the bird-fancier’s daughter was bedewed with heart-wrung tears. —- - L2G LLL ALL LLL = a 7 THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, CHAPTER XI, ' HE OPERA-DANCER, ; Ir was about noon on the day following that when the brilliant début of the new danseuse at the Opera took place, and the heroine of the preceding night’s triumph was reclining negligently on a couch in a handsomely-appointed drawing-room that formed a portion of the magnificent suite of apartments she occupied in King Street, St. James’s. Mademoiselle Celestine—for we must introduce her under that name by which she attained her profes- sional popularity—was one of those charming, sylph- like creatures that immediately seize upon the adimi- ration of the beholder. Born,in Italy, educated in France, and well acquainted with the English, from the society in which she had mixed abroad, it seemed as if she had become unconsciously endowed with the characteristics distinguishing those different nations. She exhibited the passionate ardour of the first, the refined graces of the second, and the purity of senti- ment of the third; and as, with nearly equal fluency, she conversed also in English, French, and Italian, it was as though her knowledge of the three languages had insensibly led her to aequire the manners of those by whom they were spoken. Her features were well formed, extremely regular, and impressed with that fascinating glow-of youthful enthusiasm that gave a charm to the entire countenance, and indicated the intense love with which she could ‘devote herself to her profession in the pursuit of fame. The complexion was clear and exquisitely trans- parent; and above a forehead of smooth and ample proportion, her dark brown hair was seen flowing back in glossy tresses over her finely-turned neck and shoulders. Her eyes were full and voluptuously expressive, fringed by long silky lashes, and over- arched with brows of faultless curvature. Her lips were of that rich deep colour that contrasted so finely with the rows of pearly teeth half-disclosed between them, and her ears were delicately small and hands some. Reclining on the couch, the rounded contour of her limbs was seen to full advantage, and thie figure thus extended was one that an artist would have delighted to depict, or a sculptor to embody in the perpetuity of marble. The superior furniture and decorative appointments that surrounded her were of that elegant and tasteful kind that gave to the room an appearance of sump- tuous refinement and luxurious comfort; and in numerous china vases, suitable for their dsplay, flowers of the most beautiful and costly desciiption were arranged in ornamental bouquets about the place, so that wherever the eye of the fair lounger turned, it reposed upon the choicest images of floral loveliness, In the recess formed by the projection of the bay curved window was also a flower-stand, crowned by the most fragrant plants, in full blossom, and exhaling a delicious odour that completely penetrated the apart- ment; and in the midst of these were globes of gold and silver fish, that, glancing in the sunshine, as the bright rays gleamed upon their shining scales, gave a pleasing animation to the picture, at the same time that the pellucid element in which they disported im- parted agreeable sensations of refrigerating coolness. The window was just raised to admit the air, and a blind drawn slightly down softened the strong light of a summer noon to a mellow radiance that was pecu- liarly adapted to set off the objects in the room tothe greatest advantage. The sumptuous breakfast ser- CORMIELOOYO KS (Efe)